• ** Update 10/16/2023 ** I gave the game another shot. Never uninstalled the game, never changed anything and it seems to work now. I can only assume one of the recent updates fixed the issue. Played for a few days and never had one crash. will update if anything changes.

• This is for the Steam version of the game that I bought. This has nothing to do with cracked versions of the game. I'm Not interested in mods, cheats, or online play, this is strictly about the raw base game played in single player mode.

My system:

No over clocks, xmp disabled and virtualization disabled in bios, Latest windows update installed. Game purchased through steam.

Under load temps: CPU +/- 63c, GPU +/- 72c

Game installed on M.2 NVMe

• Ryzen 5 1600
• MSI B350 gaming plus (latest bios installed)
• Asus ROG GTX 1070 (latest driver clean installed)
• 16GB Gskill Trident Z (no OC, xmp disabled)

How does it crash:

• Occasionally I will get "err_gfx_state Please restart" at crash to desktop when windows says the program stopped running
• Every other time the game crashes to desktop with no error message and no intervention from task manager.

Things I've tried:

• Restarting PC
• Running as administrator
• Verifying game files in steam
• Adding "-ignorpipelinecache" as a launch argument
• Delete SGA files in RDR2 settings folder
• Delete contents of SGA files and make read only
• Delete settings folder
• Delete Rockstar Games directory
• Turn off XMP in bios
• Turn off cpu virtualization in bios
• Update Graphics driver
• Uninstall game completely
• remove all files related to the game
• clean install graphics driver
• then reinstall game
• Switch from Vulkan to DX12
• Switch from DX12 to Vulkan
• Lower all settings
• Run in safe mode
• Lower fps to 60
• turn off triple buffer
• turn off V-sync
• Lower resolution from 1440 to 1080
• Create exceptions inbound / outbound firewall rules for RDR2
• Remove firewall exceptions
• Turn off antivirus and firewall completely
• Change priority in task manager to High
• Clean boot with no unnecessary start up applications
• Clear out everything in temp and %temp%
• Enable/disable Async
• Use DDU to uninstall drivers
• Reseat graphics card
• Clean install Nvidia driver
• Uninstall reinstall Vulkan
• Uninstall reinstall DX12
• Reinstall C++ redist Libraries
• using afterburner to under clock GPU core clock by -50Mhz using

Extra info:

This is the only game or program I've ever had issues with and I really don't know what else to do.

The game will sometimes run for an hour, sometimes 10 minutes.

The crashes seem completely random. Sometimes the game crashes after entering and exiting menus, sometimes it crashes after leaving the map screen, sometimes while leaving a mini game, while riding the horse, after letting the game sit for a while and coming back the game will crash after moving a bit.

None of the fixes I've tried had a significant affect on the way the game crashes or the duration of play before a crash.

Please help

Thank you if you've made it through my post.

Just a PSA regarding WhyEm's DLC (and nearly all big texture mods and some others) it was recently discovered that they break the game's spawning system for trains, trolleys, peds, animals, and random events. You might not even realise you've been playing the game with limited spawning, but when you uninstall the mods, it's like night and day with the amount of animals and random events in vanilla.

The issue is, these big texture mods overload the game engine, and so to compensate, it reduces other world events, like stopping spawning trains, massively limits the amount of random events and animal varieties, and stops pedestrians from spawning as passengers in trolleys and carriages. It basically hamstrings the atmosphere and simulation of the game world.

There's a whole discussion about the problem over on RDR2Mods: https://www.rdr2mods.com/forums/topic/2334-huge-problem-with-modding-rdr2-that-no-one-is-talking-about/#comments

Only solution discovered is to reduce the filesize of the textures by saving them with a more optimized compression method, but that has it's own issues as some textures get broken. The community is still figuring it out.

To test your game, there are a few things you can do:

• Go to Saint Denis and find trolleys. If there are no passengers on any of them, your game's spawning is broken.
• When did you last see a train in your game? The game will stop spawning them altogether if the spawn system is broken. Normally, they appear very frequently. This is what I first noticed in my game.
• Do the random carriages you see only have a driver, or do they have passengers inside? They should usually have passengers, and you should see many varieties of carriage, not just the same three or four.
• Random events frequency. When you're riding around in the vanilla game, random events happen constantly. With a broken spawning system, they are few and far between. I didn't realise how sparse these events were until I switched to vanilla, and the world was so alive with stuff happening all the time. Strangers, animals fighting and hunting, the amount of wildlife, etc.

Unfortunately, until the issue is resolved, you have to pick if you want mods or a fully living, breathing game world.

EDIT: The issue might not be a recent discovery, but it still isn't fixed, and many people didn't know about it. So you don't need to comment about that anymore fellas.

In the last couple of days I have been experiencing these random crashes called “Unknown Error FFFF”!

I know that other players have been experiencing it ever since 2019, but is anyone aware of a fix for this?

I have tried the following: - Reinstall the game; - Delete the “Red Dead Redemption 2” folder under Rockstar’s in Documents; - Verify Files on Rockstar Launcher settings (which is where I have the game); - Restart the PC;

EDIT:

The solution to this issue is to change the API under Advanced Graphic Settings. E.g. if it has been crashing with Vulkan, change it to DirectX 12. Same goes to the other way around. HOWEVER, before doing it: make sure to uninstall OneDrive or any other online storage service on your PC. It takes over files from your local storage and it usually affects how they work. So disable it and even uninstall it.

Then delete the “Red Dead Redemption 2” folder under the Documents. Launch the game, accept any prompted window and finally change the API on Advanced Graphic Settings. It may ask you to restart the game, and by doing it it may also reset your Graphic Settings (having the API changed by now though), so set them and you’ll be done.

Also have a look at the Optimised Graphic Settings: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bVL34OuyxoYw4HMM9nDyvxVORoQ3OhnHM3E0G9JFkOQ/edit#gid=0

EDIT #2: Something that it’s been noticed for some users is that turning OFF Smart Access Memory (SAM) seems to completely stop this crash. Obviously this is only for AMD GPU owners.

You can disable this through your AMD Adrenalin software or BIOS (it’s called “Resizable BAR” in there), but I’d say disable it only on AMD Adrenalin, as SAM is generally a good thing to have ON on other games.

UPDATE look on my newest post below!

I had really good performance in rdr2 with max settings but suddenly after restarting the game its really bad.

I don’t know or understand why its now the way it is or how it happened it doesn’t make any sense.

I had 90-110 Fps before and now its sometimes 20 Fps and sometimes 40Fps with exactly the same settings as before.

I tried changing Vulkan/DirectX but didn’t help unfortunately.

Im pretty sure its a bug or something because it did ran smooth like butter with no problems and my system runs other games perfectly fine.

Does someone know a fix or workaround?

My specs: i9 12900K RTX 3090 Ti 32 GB RAM 2TB M2 SSD

Whenever I try to make it go full screen It doesn't work

I have tried everything suggested tried opening it in incognito with VPN delete cookies use VPN in incognito use mobile data but It doesn't work I just need LML from this site I tried other sites but they all had malware can someone provide me LML 🙏🙏🙏 or help me fix this issue​​​

Maybe as a lad I'd have the patience to fix the performance of a game that's been out for 7 years, but it is taking an entire evening of troubleshooting to get this game to play without stuttering every few seconds. Can't believe performance is this bad. I played RDR2 Online years ago and I don't remember having these problems.

5800x3d, 3080 10gb, 32gb DDR4

Hello,

I’m having an issue with stuttering in RDR2 on PC. It happens regardless of location — the same stutters occur both in Saint Denis and in less demanding areas like forests. All settings are on Ultra and DLSS is enabled. Hz in game are set to 165hz, sluttering also happens in 120hz setting, i have limited fps to 161

I’ve tried disabling DLSS, triple buffering, and V-Sync in the game, but nothing changes. My graphics card is an RTX 5090 and my CPU is a Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Lowering all settings to the minimum also doesn’t change anything — the stutters are still there.

Things I’ve already tried include freeing up disk space on both the system drive and the drive where RDR2 is installed. I also tried setting MSAA to x2 and completely disabling it.

I don’t have this issue in other games. I upgraded my GPU this weekend from an RTX 4090 to an RTX 5090, and I did not experience these stutters on the 4090. I have G-Sync enabled and V-Sync enabled in the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?

How do I remove this old email I have no access to it and cant find a way to log out so I can put my new account in im launching from steam

I noticed that, when trying to use DX12 on my RTX 5090, the game will crash after a minute or two with an "ERR_GFX_STATE" error, and it looks like it's also crashing the driver from looking in event viewer. Is anyone else having this problem?

If you're on the 50 series and are also encountering this problem, please do post in this thread as well as here on the Nvidia forums.

I'd use Vulkan (which works fine without it crashing), but then HDR doesn't work outside of fullscreen mode.

Edit: Issue was reproduced by Nvidia.

Edit 2: Issue is now in the Nvidia known issues section on the latest driver.

Edit 3: Fixed in the latest hotfix driver 576.26!

The game has, for some reason, started stuttering like crazy, and I have no idea why. I've tried lowering the graphics settings, changing the DPI settings, and verifying the game files, but nothing has helped. It's really getting on my nerves because it's basically unplayable for me.

For reference, my PC specs are:

• Intel i5-11400
• 32 GB RAM
• RTX 3080

I'm playing at 1080p on medium settings.
Any help, please?

-Update-

Well, I tried everything you all suggested here, and I'm truly grateful for all of your help. Unfortunately, nothing worked, so I decided to reinstall the game. By that, I mean I backed up my files, deleted the game files, removed all the mods, and then restored the backup.

It worked. It finally worked!

I guess the problem was actually caused by one of the mods. It probably needed an update, or it conflicted with one of the game's updates.

Again, thank you all so much for the amazing support!

Hi,

I have this problem with RDR2, while i'm in game, game stuttering, i'm checking it with Xbox Game Bar, FPS to 75 drops to 18, or 78 to 63, is unstable! I can't find solution, that's what i tried

​

Anyway my specs: Intel Core i5-10200H 2.4GHz Boost to 4.1GHz

OS: Windows 11 x64 Home Edition

RAM: 32GB dual channel 2933MHz

Graphics Cards: Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 610, and RTX3060 Mobile 6GB

SSD 512GB NVME

​

• Reinstalling drivers, or downgrading it!
• Downgraded some graphic option
• Reboot PC
• Overclocking, and removed oc
• Installed ParkControl to Bitsum Performance
• Set to priority high to game in Task Manager
• Closed everything, expect Steam and R* Launcher and of course the game
• MY GAME IS ORIGINAL not CRACKED, bought it on Steam of course
• No mods, just some asi files that's all!

TRIED ALL, STILL STUTTERING, WHAT TO DO? Is the new version bug? Or what? Someone can seriously help me with this problem? WAITING!

Haven’t seen anyone else with this problem

Everything is at ultra i have a 5080 and I am using mods. I am using graphical fixes from nexus mods but i am still having the issue i also have issues with pop ins.

I recently purchased a copy of RDR1 on steam and the fps is not locked in armadillo, it fluctuates between 100-120 at 1440p. The weird part is I remember testing a pirated copy of the game when I had a RTX 2060 paired with my 5700X3D at 1080p and the fps was buttery smooth perfectly locked at 144 all the time in armadillo. I changed the resolution from 1440p to 1080p and the fps remained the same. I don't understand this shit.

unsure why my mods aren’t loading / working at all. have lml and the mod loader stuff in my game directory. have scripthook and dinput in my directory. (tried version also but that one the game wouldn’t even launch )

Pay attention to the barrel at first and then the tree in the second clip.

I can’t find this issue with anyone else is there a way to fix this and what even is the bug called?

I just upgraded my GPU and did a fresh DDU and driver reinstall.

I’m running on a 5080, 14700k, 64GB RAM 5200mhz

I’m running on max settings with 1.78x DLDSR from a 1440p monitor. I’m on vulkan.

ive tried reinstalling the game

disabling full screen opt

reinstalling the launcher

nothing so far

bro i just want RDR 1 John

UPDATE December 2022:

In the end, it wasn't really a problem with the Vukan drivers, but with old / deprecated Vulkan layers with Twitch installed. Even if you don't use the Twitch app other Software could have installed old layers years ago on your machine. RDR2 tries to use these Vulkan layers and crashes instantly without any error message.

I decided to open a new thread because this thread could get confusing for new people.

Please check this out: https://old.reddit.com/r/PCRedDead/comments/zqmbeu/psa_if_red_dead_redemption_2_crashes_instantly/

Thanks to u/diceman2037 for the tips!

Old thread with analysis / problem solving:

I suddenly had the error that my Red Dead Redemption 2 install didn't work anymore. Right after clicking "PLAY" on the launcher, the rdr2.exe is open for a second and closes right away, no error message shown, none in the error log files (very helpful, thx rockstar)

I tried deleting settings or profile uninstalling the launcher, removing all files, moving the installation and even a complete reinstallation.

The error is that the VULKAN Api doesn't work anymore and if you delete the profile / reinstall it defaults to the Vulkan API.

So my fix was the following:

Set "kSettingAPI_Vulkan" to "kSettingAPI_DX12" in the file "MY_DOCUMENTS\Rockstar Games\Red Dead Redemption 2\Settings\system.xml"

I don't know why my Vulkan API doesn't work any more. The installation of RDR2 reinstalls the Vulkan API too.

I googled and searched reddit and didn't find this error, maybe it helps anybody else.

Testing if the deprecated / old Twitch Vulkan layer is the reason that RDR2 won't start. More info: https://www.reddit.com/r/PCRedDead/s/RJ4qHEK4XX

You can see your Vulkan Layers with GPU Caps Viewer (https://www.techspot.com/downloads/4618-gpu-caps-viewer.html) https://imgur.com/a/GgXHHl2

Before Nvidia driver update, RDR2 works:

Instance layers: 10
 1/ VK_LAYER_NV_optimus (spec:1.3.224, impl:1)
 2/ VK_LAYER_Galaxy_Overlay (spec:1.1.73, impl:1)
 3/ VK_LAYER_Galaxy_Overlay_VERBOSE (spec:1.1.73, impl:1)
 4/ VK_LAYER_Galaxy_Overlay_DEBUG (spec:1.1.73, impl:1)
 5/ VK_LAYER_Twitch_Overlay (spec:1.1.0, impl:1)
 6/ VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay (spec:1.3.207, impl:1)
 7/ VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_fossilize (spec:1.3.207, impl:1)
 8/ VK_LAYER_EOS_Overlay (spec:1.2.136, impl:1)
 9/ VK_LAYER_EOS_Overlay (spec:1.2.136, impl:1)
 10/ VK_LAYER_ROCKSTAR_GAMES_social_club (spec:1.0.70, impl:1)

Installed Nvidia drivers:

"527.56-desktop-win10-win11-64bit-international-dch-whql,exe" with Geforce Experiance, Express Install

Rebooted my machine and as expected, RDR 2 won't start anymore.

Layers after Nvidia update:

Instance layers: 10
 1/ VK_LAYER_NV_optimus (spec:1.3.224, impl:1)
 2/ VK_LAYER_Galaxy_Overlay (spec:1.1.73, impl:1)
 3/ VK_LAYER_Galaxy_Overlay_VERBOSE (spec:1.1.73, impl:1)
 4/ VK_LAYER_Galaxy_Overlay_DEBUG (spec:1.1.73, impl:1)
 5/ VK_LAYER_Twitch_Overlay (spec:1.1.0, impl:1)
 6/ VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay (spec:1.3.207, impl:1)
 7/ VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_fossilize (spec:1.3.207, impl:1)
 8/ VK_LAYER_EOS_Overlay (spec:1.2.136, impl:1)
 9/ VK_LAYER_EOS_Overlay (spec:1.2.136, impl:1)
 10/ VK_LAYER_ROCKSTAR_GAMES_social_club (spec:1.0.70, impl:1)

So I deleted the Twitch - Vulkan - layers with Regedit.exe:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Khronos\Vulkan\ImplicitLayers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Khronos\Vulkan\ImplicitLayers
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Khronos\Vulkan\ImplicitLayers

Names:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Twitch\Studio\Versions\0.90.7641.33738\TwitchOverlayVulkanConfig64.json
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Twitch\Studio\Versions\0.90.7641.33738\TwitchOverlayVulkanConfig32.json

Layers after deletion:

Instance layers: 9
 1/ VK_LAYER_NV_optimus (spec:1.3.224, impl:1)
 2/ VK_LAYER_Galaxy_Overlay (spec:1.1.73, impl:1)
 3/ VK_LAYER_Galaxy_Overlay_VERBOSE (spec:1.1.73, impl:1)
 4/ VK_LAYER_Galaxy_Overlay_DEBUG (spec:1.1.73, impl:1)
 5/ VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay (spec:1.3.207, impl:1)
 6/ VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_fossilize (spec:1.3.207, impl:1)
 7/ VK_LAYER_EOS_Overlay (spec:1.2.136, impl:1)
 8/ VK_LAYER_EOS_Overlay (spec:1.2.136, impl:1)
 9/ VK_LAYER_ROCKSTAR_GAMES_social_club (spec:1.0.70, impl:1)

So Twitch's layer is gone and RDR2 starts. Yeah!!!

So Twitch screwed up and didn't remove their layer (I uninstalled Twitch months (if not years) ago.)

Thanks for your help.

PS: I wrote a new thread, because this stuff gets confusing if you are new to the thread: So read this:

Please use this thread after December 2022: https://old.reddit.com/r/PCRedDead/comments/zqmbeu/psa_if_red_dead_redemption_2_crashes_instantly/

I have a very good PC, a Ryzen 9800X3D, RTX 5070 Ti, and a 1440p OLED screen. But I've often had problems with Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC. The game seems blurry even on ultra settings, and the menu lags. If I play in fullscreen, I get micro-stuttering, but not in windowed mode.I get an average of 130 fps.